content and ia strategy with impact using topics and taxonomy

2013 Ingeniux User Conference | Seattle

CONTENT & IA STRATEGY WITH IMPACT:

#igxuc13 | @thePrimacy | @ZigZagJeff | thePrimacy.com 1

Maximizing the Content Experience

Using Topics, Themes & Taxonomy


Tweeting today?


@ZigZagJeff

@thePrimacy

#igxuc13


Good conference?

How many here are…

– With a school?

– Different business?

– An agency or vendor?

– Marketing side?

– Technology side?

– Just me! (Marketing and Technology and everything else, too)

Today a focus with schools, but concepts apply to all



Content and IA Strategy with Impact

Lost in the conversation of website design and implementation…

…How to effectively create the “connective tissue” that brings it all together in the form of an effective content and information architecture (IA) strategy.

Today… Look at power of developing unique topics, themes and taxonomy to unify overall content experience


Maximizing the Content Experience Using Topics, Themes, and Taxonomy


At the Conference: Listening. Talking. Sharing. Many challenges to address!



Common theme: This stuff is hard!



No other category of website has a greater range of relevant target audiences than a college or university.


Feel free to tweet this.


Typical Education Website Audience Identification and Prioritization

9

Media, Faculty, Staff and Prospective Faculty/Staff

Current Students

Alumni/Donors

Family/Influencer of Prospects

Prospective Students


Its easy to oversimplify


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p:/

/xkcd.c

om

/773/

Quote just heard from the

audience…

“Ugh, if I have to see that graphic one more time in a presentation!”


And… also easy to spoof!



Typical Website Redesign Takes 9-18 Months!


…Once you actually start!


All too familiar result…



Result of many website redesign efforts

Major website redesign initiative

– New design

– New CMS (more often than is necessary)

Question...

How different is the underlying structure?

What has changed with your content strategy?

Little or nothing?

Congrats! You put a new suit on the same challenges.



What makes you different?


“But you don’t understand! Our faculty really do care more than their faculty.”


But ARE you different?

Faculty care

Strong student relationships

Dozens of programs to offer

Great campus

A gazillion clubs and activities

Great food in the dining hall

Rock climbing wall


If everyone says

it, it’s NOT a differentiator!


THE PREMISE



“WHAT” AND “HOW” IS NOT “WHY”



Why

High Value

Look in the middle


Home Page

Typical IA Structure

Final calls

to action

What How

The battleground areas


Education stakeholders are consumed by reflecting their organizational model.


What’s missing? The “connective tissue” to tie it all together.


Let’s take a look: Our Starting Point


And so we embark on a website

redesign…


Let’s get our priorities straight


Website Redesign Priorities

Attract (higher-

credentialed) Students

Tell the (College Name)

Story

Engaging and Intuitive


Foundation for Website Redesign

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Foundation for Website Redesign

#igxuc13 | @thePrimacy | @ZigZagJeff | thePrimacy.com 24 24

Where teams should spend

MORE of their time

Where teams should spend

MORE of their time

Where teams spend MOST of their time

Where teams spend MOST of their time


We provide for so many ways to navigate, but we’ve forgotten about the reason “they” are here.


To consume, experience and interact with… content!


Often, the structural “bones” are there…


There’s only so many ways to name and

organize these sections


…but every page works too hard


Navigation

Contextual

Links

Factoids

and

thematic

content

AKA: “I read

somewhere

about a 3-click

rule, so lets put

navigation

everywhere”

AKA: “We

have added

too many

things and now

the IA isn’t

intuitive”

AKA: “I know

you came

looking for

something

specific but

maybe click on

me instead”


WHICH BRINGS US TO…


Cue up the foreboding

music please


The Information Architecture (IA) Dilemma


Information architecture has performed

admirably, considering…

Often the real need transcends ANY

information architecture structure.


The “IA Dilemma”


Providing easy, intuitive wayfinding to task-driven content,

WHILE we…

Enable contextual relationships between

related but decentralized content, AND…

Showcase differentiating aspects of (School Name)

in an experiential and engaging manner, that doesn’t stop us from…

The Dilemma


Longstanding Approach: Aligning Website with User’s Mental Model

Organizational Structure versus User’s Mental Model

Question: What if we stop fighting the endless, winless battle?



Revisiting the “IA Dilemma”

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Answer: And…Choose both!


1st: IA Organizational Approach

Everything gets a home within core IA structure

Navigation and nomenclature streamlined to accelerate “findability”

Stay somewhat common to most colleges, therefore low learning curve

Mostly managed by respective organizational owner


Home

Tier One

Tier 2 Tier 2

Tier 3

Tier 4 Tier 4

Tier 5

Tier One

Tier 2

Tier 3 Tier 3

Tier 4

Tier 3

Tier 2 Tier 2

Tier 3

Tier 4 Tier 4

Tier 5 Tier 5

Tier One

Tier 2 Tier 2 Tier 2

Tier 3

Tier 4

Tier 5

Tier One

Tier 2

Tier 3

Tier 4

Tier 5 Tier 5


Home

Tier One

Tier 2 Tier 2

Tier 3

Tier 4 Tier 4

Tier 5

Tier One

Tier 2

Tier 3 Tier 3

Tier 4

Tier 3

Tier 2 Tier 2

Tier 3

Tier 4 Tier 4

Tier 5 Tier 5

Tier One


Tier 3

Tier 4

Tier 5

Tier One

Tier 2

Tier 3

Tier 4

Tier 5 Tier 5

1st: IA Organizational Approach

Good for finding a piece of information

Not as good for contextually related information


Test drive:

“what’s your passion?”

Science?

Programs Internships Research Alumni Faculty Big News


Most websites lack the “connective tissue”



Every school has signature features that truly differentiate it from other

schools. Celebrate them.

2nd: Add a Topical / Thematic Overlay


Sciences

at

Emmanuel


Present content that relates topically/thematically without forcing the user to

jump all around the website. Help website visitors “connect the dots”.

Conceptual Approach: Connect the Dots


Sciences

at

Emmanuel


Topical / Thematic Overlay


Sciences

at

Emmanuel

Celebrate them… as you may have already done

The difference: Build in, not bolt on

Typical approach: Create a microsite


Eschew organizational boundaries


All schools have topics and

themes that make them

distinctive.

Topics/themes transcend

any one part of the

organization.

Consider ways in which to

“celebrate” your school,

topically/thematically.

2013 Ingeniux User Conference | Seattle #igxuc13 | @thePrimacy | @ZigZagJeff | thePrimacy.com 40

Arts at

Emmanuel

Topic of

____ at

Emmanuel

Boston

Residence

Life at

Emmanuel

Mission

and

Spirituality

at

Emmanuel

The

Catholic

Intellectual

Tradition Academics

at

Emmanuel

Visiting

Emmanuel

Beyond the

Classroom

Global

Studies

Research

at

Emmanuel

Sciences

at

Emmanuel

2013 Ingeniux User Conference | Seattle #igxuc13 | @thePrimacy | @ZigZagJeff | thePrimacy.com 41

Arts at

Emmanuel

Topic of

____ at

Emmanuel

Boston

Residence

Life at

Emmanuel

Mission

and

Spirituality

at

Emmanuel

The

Catholic

Intellectual

Tradition Academics

at

Emmanuel

Visiting

Emmanuel

Beyond the

Classroom

Global

Studies

Research

at

Emmanuel

Sciences

at

Emmanuel

Home

Tier One

Tier 2 Tier 2

Tier 3

Tier 4 Tier 4

Tier 5

Tier One

Tier 2

Tier 3 Tier 3

Tier 4

Tier 3

Tier 2 Tier 2

Tier 3

Tier 4 Tier 4

Tier 5 Tier 5

Tier One


Tier 3

Tier 4

Tier 5

Tier One

Tier 2

Tier 3

Tier 4

Tier 5 Tier 5

Organizational AND Topical


Identify unifying topics/themes across campus


Identify unifying topics/themes across campus [ex: Health Care]

43

Topic of Health Care

School of

Medicine

School of Health Sciences

School of

Nursing

School of Commu-nications

School of Law

School of

Business

Community Service

Practical Training

Global Programs

-JD, Health Law

Concentration

-MBA, Healthcare

Management

-Healthcare PR


Identify unifying topics across campus



…and then celebrate them



I mean really celebrate them



Another robust approach



Which leads to this…



But where’s the main navigation?



Create your own topic mash-up



Start somewhere, like “News”



What’s in a name? Topics as “channels”



Brand attributes as themes



Enhanced Search with filters



Key aspects of the customer journey treated as a topic:


The campus visit is a primary inflection point for selecting a school


Before: Visit page lost in the IA

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Addresses the “What” and

“How”


After: Celebrated, topically

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Articulates the “Why”


Emmanuel College: Topics in action



Content can live anywhere


In the topic area

In News

Any other place in the site


And contextually relevant throughout experience


Conveniently, all wired and ready

to go for DMS


Takeaways


Tear down the organizational

barriers.

Create pages that address key

“signature” and “ownable” topics.

Use to aggregate access to

content found throughout the

website (connect the dots).


Identifying Topics


Signature themes

Brand attributes

Centers of gravity around

research, centers and

institutes

Aspects of the customer

journey that matter


Outcomes we are seeing

Enhanced engagement

SEO effect, particularly with un-branded searches

Internal satisfaction

Valuable content managed by the “best” authors

Inspires increased storytelling

– More good content is surfacing as a result

– Its showcased, not buried

Foundation for overall content strategy (online and offline)

– Paves way for syndication

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Next wave

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Customized content delivery

based on user behavior

Integration with external

marketing efforts (online

and offline)

Take advantage of IGX9 search and

digital market tools


THANK YOU


@thePrimacy

@ZigZagJeff

[email protected]